Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 Review

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were captured using the 7.5M Fine (3072
x 2352) JPEG image size option producing a file that is around
3Mb in size.

Noise

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 has 5
ISO settings. Noise is noticeable from ISO 400 upwards
– nothing we haven’t witnessed before of course, and the
L1 is not the worst offender, but it doesn’t quite for me
deliver a result that justifies the outlay. Here are some
100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO
100 (100% Crop)

ISO
200 (100% Crop)

ISO
400 (100% Crop)

ISO
800 (100% Crop)

ISO
1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images at the default setting are soft and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop,
or you change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't
like the
default results.

Original
(100% Crop)

Sharpened
(100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 dealt
extremely well with chromatic aberrations during the review,
with very limited purple fringing present around the edges
of
objects in high-contrast situations. Here is a 100%
crop which shows the typical chromatic aberrations that you
can expect:

Chromatic
Aberrations (100% Crop)

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 allows you to focus on a subject that
is 29cms away from the camera with the supplied lens. The
first image shows how close you can get to the subject
(in this
case
a
compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro
Shot

Macro
Shot (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Panasonic
Lumix DMC-L1 are Auto,
Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On/Red-eye Reduction,
Slow Sync., Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced On/Off.
These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance
of 1.5m.

Flash
Off - Wide Angle (28mm)

Auto
Flash - Wide Angle (28mm)

Flash
Off - Telephoto (100mm)

Auto
Flash - Telephoto (100mm)

And here are some portrait shots.
As you can see, neither the Forced On and Red-Eye Reduction
options caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash
On

Flash
On (100% Crop)

Flash
- Red-Eye Reduction

Flash
- Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 maximum
shutter speed is 60 seconds and there's also a Bulb mode,
which is excellent news if you're interested in night photography.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds,
aperture of f/9 at ISO 1600. I've included a 100% crop of
the image to show what the quality is like.

Night
Shot

Night
Shot (100% Crop)

Overall Image Quality

Given the combination of that price tag, the Leica lens whacked on the front
– and the fact that I’d just tested Olympus’ own Four Thirds
baby the E-400 prior to the L1 and found images noticeably
sharp and bright – I was expecting great things here. That’s
not quite what I got – and here’s why. Though there’s little
evidence of purple fringing unless you really, really look
for it, even
on an overcast day it’s easy to lose highlight detail unless
you underexpose by a couple of stops, a slightly underexposed
image being preferable to one devoid of detail. Though the
above concerns are being picky, the biggest bugbear I found
with the L1 was its inability
– if left on auto – to determine accurate focus in low or
filtered natural light. For me its performance in this respect
was far less reliable than the likes of Nikon’s D40, which
costs a third of the L1. The frustrating result being far
more blurred or missed images than I’d have liked. Switching to manual focus, I found
the visibility of the viewfinder could have done with being
a lot brighter. Noise is also noticeable from ISO 400 upwards
– nothing we haven’t witnessed before of course, and the
L1 is not the worst offender, but it doesn’t quite for me
deliver a result that justifies the outlay. There’s also, perhaps
inevitably, some converging of verticals when shooting at extreme
wide
angle though the shots are not without dynamism. Could do better
is the overall feeling; the L1 is not bad, but it requires
a bit of work and a lot
of patience to achieve the results you’re after.

PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 have
been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.

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